¡Es hora de ir al colegio! (It’s Time to Go to School!) is a printable mini-book in Spanish. It is a free download from DLTK’s Growing Together.

¡Es hora de ir al colegio! is very short, with basic Spanish words and common Spanish structures. The illustrations are simple pictures of the vocabulary on each page.

This little book in Spanish teaches the common structure Es hora de + infinitive (base form of the verb) to express “It’s time to…” We use this phrase with children all the time: Es hora de irnos (It’s time to go), Es hora de bañarte (It’s time to take a bath), Es hora de comer (It’s time to eat).

In the book, the Spanish sentences are Es hora de levantarme (It’s time for me to get up), Es hora de desayunar (It’s time for breakfast),and Es hora de ir al colegio (It’s time to go to school).

With each of these sentences, the illustration is a clock, and the text shows the digits 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00. Be sure to read the time in a complete Spanish sentence – Son las seis (It is six o’clock), Son las siete (It is seven o’clock) and Son las ocho (It is eight o’clock).

Each of these sentences about time is followed by a sentence with the verb ver (to see) and logical Spanish vocabulary: Veo mi camisa (I see my shirt), Veo mis pantalones (I see my pants). This structure is repeated, giving children lots of exposure to the first person singular veo (I see).

This book uses the word colegio as the equivalent of “school”. This would be the most common word in some countries, like Peru and Argentina. In other countries, such as Ecuador, escuela would be more common for elementary school. If your child is learning the word escuela, you may want to change the text as you read the story (Es hora de ir a la escuela, and Veo mi escuela).

I used this collection of mini-books, 25 Bilingual Mini-Books, with my kids when they were growing up, and I still use them with my students. These are in English and Spanish, so I cover the English before I make copies. The illustrations make the Spanish clear, and I avoid mixing the two languages. If you are learning Spanish with your child, having the English might be useful. I think this is a great collection. There is a lot of Spanish language packed into these little books!